The House hasn’t voted in more than a month. The Senate is spinning its wheels on largely symbolic measures and failed attempts to end a record-setting federal government shutdown.
Meanwhile, President
He’s deployed more National Guard troops to US cities, launched military strikes in the Caribbean, tried to fire thousands of federal workers, canceled grants worth billions of dollars and torn down the East Wing of the White House without notice or consultation.
The contrast exacerbated by the shutdown reflects the dominant story of Washington power under Trump: A diminished Congress passive in the face of a driving, aggressive White House.
The month-long standoff is also testing whether Congress can reclaim some authority or if the dispute further empowers the presidency.
“What we are seeing right now is an effort by this administration to just completely dominate and make subservient to them the legislative branch,” said Sen.
Republicans and a few Democrats, however, say the shutdown may siphon away more influence from a withering Congress.
“When you have a broken system, something’s going to fill the void, and the president’s filling the void,” said Sen.
‘Done’ with Congress
Democrats have focused their public arguments about the shutdown on health care, demanding Trump and Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions afford health insurance.
Underlying that fight, however, is frustration around a broader, more fundamental question: Does Congress have any will to challenge a president who has asserted vast claims on power?
Democrats argue they have no choice but take drastic action, given Trump’s behavior and the the Republican majorities’ unflinching deference. They pointed in particular to House Speaker
“He’s acting more like he’s a cabinet official to Donald Trump, rather than actually leader of the House,” Kim said.
Under Johnson’s direction, the House hasn’t voted since Sept. 19, hasn’t held hearings, conducted oversight, or done any other significant work. Johnson hasn’t even sworn in a new member, Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) elected on Sept. 23.
Johnson argues he’s following the public mandate to support Trump’s agenda and that the reason work has stopped is because Democrats have forced the government to close — though in past shutdowns votes and other activities continued.
The Senate has continued its traditional three-day weekends amid the stalemate. It has taken up some legislation and nominations during the feud and showed a rare measure of independence this week when senators voted three times to curtail Trump’s power to impose tariffs. But it was mostly symbolic because the House won’t take up the proposals.
Trump has spent much of the shutdown overseas, not publicly worrying about the paralysis gripping a theoretically co-equal branch of government.
Speaking in Tokyo this week, he said that after lawmakers approved his sweeping tax bill earlier this year, “we’re done for four years. We don’t need anything more from Congress in terms of that.”
Backfire Risk
By refusing to support a federal funding bill, Democrats say they’re using the only leverage they have to force Trump to treat Congress as an active participant in governance, trying to bring him and the GOP to the table on the ACA.
“This series of events over the last few weeks has reminded people that Congress is a separate branch of government,” said Sen.
A few Democrats fear it could backfire.
One of the three Democratic senators who has supported a GOP funding bill, Sen.
In the absence of congressionally approved funding, Trump has claimed broad authority to shape spending and policy without any formal say from lawmakers. His team found legally questionable workarounds to pay military members, for example, but has declined to take similar steps to pay for food aid programs. They’ve nixed grants supported by top Democrats.
‘Fundamental Change’
Some of the potential solutions to end the stalemate could shift even more leverage to the White House.
One idea floated by some Republicans is a year-long spending bill to extend existing funding levels with few changes from Congress. If that happens, it would mark a second consecutive year in which lawmakers rubber stamp existing funding — punting away their power to shape trillions of dollars of spending. It would remove one of the only points of leverage that forces the administration to deal with Congress.
Even Republicans on the House and Senate appropriations committees fear another failure to pass new spending bills will undermine the historically powerful panels.
But that’s an outcome the White House has coveted in surprisingly public ways, said Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
“That would be a very fundamental change and shift of power into the White House,” said Wallach, who studies Congress and governance issues.
Democrats say the spending process was already degraded. The administration for months has disregarded some spending approved by Congress, gutting agencies, firing workers, and using broad interpretations of the rules to cancel some approved spending, such as for foreign aid.
Democrats now say they won’t support more spending unless they have assurances Trump will honor the entirety of spending laws, not just the parts he likes.
It all makes any compromise to end the dispute even more difficult.
Lawmakers, Wallach said, “are genuinely unsure of what a negotiation with the White House even means.”
Democrats acknowledge the risk of further empowering the president, but say he was already overstepping.
“Doing nothing wasn’t working,” Slotkin said.
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